Place a $\star$ over a letter as an accent

Question

I want to create a stylized version of the i where the dot has been replaced by a $\star$.

I know how to stackrel, but that's about the only thing I know about stacking things on top of eachother.

Answer 1

Some low level TeX is the easiest way:

\documentclass{article}

\makeatletter
\newcommand{\generic}{\textsf{Gener\istar c}}
\newcommand{\istar}{%
  \leavevmode
  \vbox{%
    \offinterlineskip
    \ialign{\hfil##\hfil\cr\hidewidth$\scriptstyle\star$\hidewidth\cr\i\cr}%
  }%
}
\makeatother

\begin{document}

\Large \generic

\normalsize \generic

\footnotesize \generic

\end{document}

With the help of the accsupp package you can make the text searchable and copyable as “Generic”. Unfortunately, not all PDF viewers support the feature.

\documentclass{article}

\usepackage{accsupp}

\makeatletter
\DeclareRobustCommand{\generic}{%
  \BeginAccSupp{ActualText=Generic}\textsf{Gener\istar c}\EndAccSupp{}}
\newcommand{\istar}{%
  \leavevmode
  \vbox{%
    \offinterlineskip
    \ialign{\hfil##\hfil\cr\hidewidth$\scriptstyle\star$\hidewidth\cr\i\cr}%
  }%
}
\makeatother

\begin{document}

\Large \generic

\normalsize \generic

\footnotesize \generic

\end{document}

Answer 2

Here it is with a stackengine approach. EDITED to use \i instead of i.

The vertical position of the star may be adjusted with the .02\baselineskip optional argument, and the horizontal position of the star may be adjusted with the \mkern-.2mu adjustment.

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{stackengine}
\newcommand\istar{\def\useanchorwidth{T}%
  \stackon[.02\baselineskip]{\i}{$\mkern-.2mu\scriptstyle\star$}}
\newcommand\generic{Gener\istar c}
\begin{document}
\generic\ \textsf{\generic}\par
\Huge\generic\ \textsf{\generic}\par
\footnotesize\generic\ \textsf{\generic}\par
\scriptsize\generic\ \textsf{\generic}\par
\end{document}